nil 


CHRISTIAN    EXAMINER 


AND 


GENERAL    REVIEW 


VOL.  VI 


i 

I 


NEW  SERIES,  VOL.   I 


BOSTON. 
PUBLISHED  AT  THE  OFFICE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  EXAMINER, 

CORNER  OF  WASHINGTON   AND  SCHOOL,  STREETS. 

LONDON,  BY   ROWLAND    HUNTER. 

LIVERPOOL,    11Y    EDWARD   WILLMKH 

1829 


THE    CHRISTIAN   EXAMINER. 


NO.  XXXI. 


NEW    SERIES  — NO.   I. 


MARCH,  1829. 

Revivalists,  dissensions  among  the, 
101,  122,  124— to  be  explained  on 
philosophical  piinciples,  104 — as  ex- 
hibited at  New  Lebanon,  109-113 
— not  composed  by  that  body,  113 — 
nor  by  the  publication  of  Dr  Beech- 
er  and  Mr  Nettleton's  Letters,  113 
— their  political  effects  in  the  West, 
114 — their  acknowledged  tendency 
to  promote  '  Socinianism,  Unitanan- 
ism,  and  Universalism,'114— curious 
document  published  by  the  parties, 
115 

Revival  of  Religion  in  Troy,  its  char- 
acteristic features,  101, 120-122— in 
the  upper  counties  of  New  York, 
101 

Revivals  of  Religion,  Letters  of  an 
English  Traveller  on,  101 — Messrs 
Beecher  and  Nettleton's  Letters  on 
the  '  New  Measures'  in  conducting, 
101 — considered  as  a  means  of 
grace,  101 — their  importance  as 
exhibited  in  the  New  Lebanon  Con- 
vention, 101 — but  recently  in  favor 
with  Calvinists,  102 — opposed  not 
only  by  Unitarians,  but  by  Catholics, 
Lutherans,  High  Churchmen,  Qua- 
kers, and  Universalists,  103 — how 
regarded  by  some  Presbyterians  and 
Orthodox  Congregationalists,  103 

Revival  System,  102— its  disorders 
opposed  by  some  New-England 
Revivalists,  105 — responsible  lor 
the  extravagances  always  attend- 
ing it,  127— its  obnoxious  measures 
not  mere  abuses,  128— not  produc- 
tive of  more  good  than  evil,  129 


1829.]  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  I         ti  11  IC^In    1Q32 

Art.  VI.— 1.  Letters  of  an  English  Traveller  to  hb-jf&ltitl  SE^X 
i/i  England,  on  the  'Revivals  of  Religion*  in  America.  Bos- 
ton. Bowles  and  Dearborn.   1828.   18mo.  pp.  142. 

2.  A  Sermon,  preached  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  at  Troy, 
March  4,  1827.  By  the  Rev.  Charles  G.  Finney.  Phila- 
delphia.  1S27.  8vo.  pp.  16. 

3.  Letters  of  the  Rev.  Dr  Beecher  and  Rev.  Mr  JYettleton, 
on  the  '  New  Measures '  in  conducting  Revivals  of  Religion. 
With  a  Review  of  a  Sermon,  by  Novanglus.  New  York. 
G.  &;  C.  Carvill.   1828.  8vo.  pp.  104. 

4.  A  Delineation  of  the  Characteristic  Features  of  a  Revival 
of  Religion  in  Troy,  in  182G  and  1827.  By  J.  Brock- 
way,  Lay  Member  of  the  Congregational  Church  in  Mid- 
dlebury,  Vt.,  now  a  Citizen  of  Troy.  Troy.  1827.  8vo. 
pp.  64. 

5.  A  Contrast  of  Josephus  Brockwatfs  Testimony  and  State- 
ment.    By  a  Brief  Remarker.  Troy.   1827.  pp.  19. 

6.  Revivals  of  Religion,  considered  as  Means  of  Grace ;  a 
Series  of  Plain  Letters  to  Candidus,from  his  friend  Hones- 
tus.  Ithaca.  1827.  8vo.  pp.  39. 

7.  The  Importance  of  Revivals  as  Exhibited  in  the  late  Con- 
vention at  New  Lebanon,  considered  in  a  Brief  Review  of 
the  Proceedings  of  that  Body.  By  Philalethes.  Ithaca. 
1827.  pp.  19. 

These  publications,  with  two  or  three  other  authorities 
which  we  shall  cite  as  we  proceed,  will  enable  us  to  set  before 
our  readers  some  account  of  the  difference  which  has  arisen 
among  the  Revivalists,  of  the  merits  of  the  controversy,  and 
of  the  singular  pacification  or  truce  which  has  been  concluded 
between  the  parties.  In  the  former  series  of  this  journal*  we 
gave  some  notices  of  a  great  religious  excitement,  which  has 
been  agitating  the  upper  counties  of  New  York  for  the  last 
three  or  four  years ;  and  it  is  chiefly  with  a  view  to  continue 
the  history,  and  bring  it  down  to  the  present  day,  that  we  return 
to  the  subject. 

We  have  no  reason  to  suppose  that  anything  we  can  say  will 
have  much  effect  on  the  leaders  and  principal  agitators  in  these 
religious  disturbances;  for  they  are  men  who  seem  to  have 
their  full  share  of  vanity  and  ambition,  neither  of  which,  they 

*  No.  for  May  and  June,  1827. 


102  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  [March, 

know,  can  be  gratified  without  keeping  up  what  is  termed  the 
Revival  System.  Probably  there  are  some  exceptions,  but  most 
of  them  must  certainly  be  conscious,  that  they  owe  their  conse- 
quence and  standing  much  less  to  any  real  superiority  of  mind, 
than  to  the  opportunity  afforded,  in  an  unnatural  and  feverish 
state  of  society,  for  the  action  and  display  of  the  only  qualities 
for  which  they  are  at  all  distinguished,  a  coarse  and  impas- 
sioned eloquence,  and  some  talents  for  intrigue.  Still  we  trust, 
that  the  great  body  of  the  people,  who  cannot  be  influenced  by 
any  of  these  considerations,  and  who  are  generally,  at  such 
times,  but  little  more  than  passive  instruments  in  the  hands  of 
their  spiritual  guides,  have  not  yet  so  far  renounced  their  good 
sense  and  independence,  as  to  be  either  unwilling  or  afraid  to 
open  their  eyes  on  the  evidence,  clearer  than  day,  that  they 
have  been  misled  and  betrayed.  In  the  moment  of  excitement, 
when  their  passions  were  up,  and  they  were  committed  in  a 
thousand  ways,  and  in  some  sense  pledged  to  the  measure  as  a 
party  measure,  to  have  attempted  to  convince  or  persuade  them 
would  have  been  labor  thrown  away.  But  now  that  the  fever 
has  subsided,  and  they  have  had  time  to  reflect,  and  look  back 
on  the  mortifying  issue  of  the  revival,  and  the  bitterness  and 
disunion  it  has  generated  even  among  its  original  friends  and 
supporters,  it  cannot  be  that  a  calm,  serious,  and  impartial 
discussion  of  the  subject  will  be  lost  on  a  community  remarka- 
ble for  intelligence  and  sound  judgment. 

The  revival  question  ought  to  be  treated,  and  we  are  con- 
vinced will  be  more  and  more,  as  a  merely  practical  question, 
respecting  which  Christians  who  differ  most  in  regard  to  doc- 
trines, may  be  perfectly  agreed.  The  Christians,  so  called,  are 
understood  to  be  with  but  few  exceptions  Unitarian  ;  and  yet 
no  sect  in  this  country  has  availed  itself  to  a  greater  degree  of 
revival  measures  in  gaining  influence  and  numbers ;  or  con- 
ducted them,  for  the  most  part,  more  judiciously,  or  more 
successfully.  The  Methodists  also  are  now,  and  always  have 
been,  decidedly  and  avowedly  Arminian ;  and  yet  to  them 
belongs  the  responsibility,  not  indeed  of  introducing  revivals  in 
the  first  instance,  but  of  reducing  them  to  a  system,  and  the 
process  of  getting  them  up  to  a  science,  and  almost  to  a  dis- 
tinct profession.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  quite  a  recent  thing 
for  the  great  body  of  proper  Calvinists,  either  in  this  country, 
or  in  Europe,  to  look  on  these  local  excitements  as  being  any 
better  than  a  kind  of  epidemic  enthusiasm,  favored  and  pro- 


1829.]  Dissentient  among  the  Revivalists.  103 

moted  by  some  of  the  more  ignorant  and  fanatical  sects.  At 
this  moment  the  opposition  to  rei  ivals  is  far  from  being  confined 

to  the  Unitarians  of  New  England)  but  is  carried  on,  certainly 
with  as  much  earnestness,  and  in  general,  we  must  think,  with 

less  candor  and  discrimination,  by  the  Catholics  throughout 
the  country,  by  most  Lutherans,  by  the  High  Church  party 
among  the  Episcopalians,  and  by  the  Quakers  and  Universalists 
to  a  man.  Nay,  it  is  believed  that  a  majority  of  the  judicious 
and  well  disposed  among  the  Presbyterians  and  Orthodox  Con- 
gregationalists,  are  now  convinced  that  the  experiment  has  been 
fairly  tried,  and  that  the  result  has  proved  the  measure  to  be 
essentially  bad,  or  at  least  so  extremely  dangerous,  that  no 
enlightened  friend  of  good  order  and  decency  can  wish  to  see 
it  repeated.  These  facts  show  how  much  confidence  is  to  be 
reposed  in  those,  who  still  persist  in  maintaining,  that  revivals 
are  the  peculiar  and  spontaneous  fruit  of  Orthodoxy,  that  they 
are  never  suspected  and  condemned  but  by  infidels,  scoffers, 
and  Unitarians,  and  that  opposition  to  them  always  indicates 
enmity  to  what  are  termed  doctrines  of  grace,  and  vital  god- 
liness. 

We  are  aware,  that,  to  some  at  least,  the  whole  subject  is 
becoming  trite  and  ungrateful ;  but  we  entirely  accord  with  a 
writer  in  one  of  the  pamphlets  before  us,  a  friend  of  Mr  Net- 
tleton,  as  to  all  attempts  which  have  been  made,  or  can  be  made, 
to  hush  up  this  controversy. 

'I  think  that  those  who  are  for  stopping  the  discussion,  are 
in  a  mistake  respecting  the  true  policy  in  the  case.  I  think 
much  of  Cotton  Mather's  warning:  "There  was  a  town  called 
Amycla?,  which  was  ruined  by  silence.  The  rulers,  because 
there  had  been  some  false  alarms,  forbade  all  people,  under  pain 
of  death,  to  speak  of  any  enemies  approaching  them :  so,  when 
the  enemies  came  indeed,  no  man  durst  speak  of  it,  and  the 
town  was  lost.  Corruptions  will  grow  upon  the  hind,  and  they 
will  gain  by  silence.  It  will  be  so  invidious  to  do  it,  no  man 
will  dare  to  speak  of  the  corruptions;  and  the  fate  of  Amyclaj 
will  come  upon  the  land.'"  Letters  on  the  'New  Measures,' 
pp.  24,^>. 

Disputes  on  speculative  points  dwindle  almost  into  insignifi- 
cance, in  our  view,  when  compared  with  this  momentous  ques- 
tion as  to  the  best  means  by  which  religion,  considered  as  a 
practical  principle,  may  be  diffused  in  the  community,  and  its 
tone  elevated  and  purified.     Let  none  fear  that  the  controversy, 


104  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  [March, 

if  properly  conducted,  will  bring  religion  itself  under  suspicion, 
by  lifting  the  veil  from  the  errors  and  delusions,  with  which  it 
has  been  sometimes  associated.  Astronomy,  chemistry,  and 
medicine  did  not  suffer  from  an  exposure  of  the  follies  and 
absurdities  of  astrologers  and  alchymists.  Everybody  knows, 
indeed,  that  the  best  things  may  be  abused ;  and  also  that 
abuses  of  the  best  things  are  often  the  worst  things.  Besides, 
though  the  general  sentiment  at  this  moment  may  be  against 
revivals,  we  cannot  be  sure  it  will  last ;  nay,  we  have  no  reason 
to  expect  it  will  last  long,  if  founded  merely  on  recent  mortifi- 
cation and  disappointment,  or  on  sudden  disgusts,  and  not  on 
inquiry  and  reflection,  and  a  thorough  understanding  of  the 
whole  subject.  It  is  said  that  these  excitements,  when  managed 
judiciously,  may  be  made  to  recur  once  in  about  three  years, 
according  to  some ;  and  once  in  about  seven,  according  to 
others ;  that  is,  the  people,  after  such  an  interval,  will  allow  the 
necessary  measures  to  be  repeated,  and  the  same  or  similar 
effects  will  follow.  But  when  they  are  managed  badly,  and  are 
attended  with  great  and  scandalous  excesses,  it  takes,  of  course, 
a  much  longer  time  for  the  people  to  forget  the  impositions 
which  have  been  practised  on  them,  and  the  utter  futility  of  all 
such  attempts,  so  far  as  experience  has  yet  gone,  to  improve  the 
public  morals.  We  wish  to  prevent,  altogether,  periodical 
returns  of  a  popular  delusion  of  this  description ;  and  to  do  so 
it  is  not  enough  to  publish  single  outrages  to  which  it  has  led, 
but  we  must  also  show  that  the  system  itself  is  unsound,  and 
that  these  outrages  are  its  natural  and  proper  results,  and  not 
merely  incidental. 

This  bitter  and  awkward  schism  among  those  who  are  still 
understood  to  favor  what  is  termed  the  Revival  Cause,  presents 
moreover  an  interesting  subject  of  investigation,  apart  from  its 
moral  bearings,  and  considered  merely  as  a  singular  revolution 
in  the  history  of  parties,  for  which  we  are  to  account,  as  we 
easily  can,  on  philosophical  principles.  We  shall  not  volunteer 
our  services  as  umpire  in  this  quarrel,  but  content  ourselves 
with  proving  that  the  more  temperate,  perhaps  we  ought  to  say 
the  more  politic  party,  have  made  their  practice  more  consistent 
with  reason  and  propriety,  by  making  it  less  so  with  the  revival 
system ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  that  their  opponents  have 
effectually  exposed  and  refuted  the  system  by  showing  to  what 
it  must  lead,  if  fully  and  honestly  acted  out.  At  the  same 
time  it  is  but  justice  to  the  Revivalists  of  New  England  to  say, 


1829.]  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  105 

that,  whether  consistently  or  not  with  the  theory  they  still  pro- 
fess to  hold,  they  have  dared  to  raise  their  voice  against  many 
prevailing  disorders,  and  ought  not  therefore  to  be  accused  of 
aiding  and  abetting  these  particular  disorders,  except  indirectly 
and  unintentionally.  It  is  true,  it'  a  man  from  a  busy  and 
meddlesome  disposition,  or  from  a  desire  of  influence  or  noto- 
riety, begins  by  countenancing  licentious  and  disorganizing 
principles,  he  is  responsible  for  the  consequences,  and  even 
tor  those  consequences  which  he  does  not  foresee,  nor  wish ; 
but  his  responsibility  is  considerably  lessened  in  regard  to  those 
consequences,  which,  as  soon  as  they  appear,  he  is  among  the 
firsl  to  condemn  and  disown. 

In  the  article  referred  to  above  we  noticed  briefly  the  origin 
of  the  great  Western  Revival  in  the  summer  and  autumn  of 
1825,  the  steps  which  were  taken  to  produce  it,  the  character 
of  the  principal  agents,  and  some  of  the  unhappy  excesses  to 
which  it  had  led,  prior  to  the  dispute  about  the  'new  measures' 
as  they  are  called.  For  a  long  time  the  whole  movement  was 
regarded  by  Dr  Bcecher  and  his  friends  with  feelings  of  un- 
mingled  satisfaction  and  triumph,  as  exhibiting  all  the  marks, 
ever  found  in  such  cases,  of  a  signal  work  of  God,  'the  begin- 
ning of  a  new  era  in  revivals  in  respect  to  rapidity  and  univer- 
sality.' A  paragraph  which  appeared  in  the  Christian  Register, 
toward  the  close  of  182G,  seems  to  have  been  the  first  to 
undeceive  them  as  to  the  real  tendency  of  these  proceedings  ; 
al  least  it  was  the  first  to  alarm  them  as  to  the  effect  which  the 
excesses  committed  in  New  York  might  have  on  the  success  of 
similar  attempts  of  their  own  in  this  quarter.  Soon  after  this 
Dr  Beecher  addressed  a  long  letter,  bearing  date  January,  1827, 
to  Mr  Beman  of  Troy,  on  the  subject  of  the  extravagances 
which  this  gentleman  was  understood  to  have  instigated  ;  and 
about  the  same  time  a  long  letter,  of  the  same  general  tenor, 
was  written  by  Mr  Nettleton,  of  Connecticut,  to  Mr  Aikin  of 
Utica,  another  of  the  disorganizes.  These  letters  were  not 
intended,  the}'  say,  for  publication,  but.  only  to  be  shown  to  a 
few  persons  immediately  interested,  in  hopes  that  they  would 
(aire  the  evil  complained  of,  without  exposing  the  part}  to  the 
scandal  of  an  open  rupture.  They  are  written  with  considera- 
ble spirit  and  ability,  but  not,  we  must  think,  in  a  stj  le  or  temper 
likeh  to  effect  their  object,  if  the  declared  object  was  the  real 
one.  To  represent  the  -new  measures'as  the  machinations  of 
the  devil,  or   as   the   offspring  of  a   crazed    intellect,  might   do 

\  OL.   vi. — n.  s,  VOL.  I.  so.   i.  I  | 


106  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  [March, 

very  well  for  a  pamphlet  designed  to  act  on  the  passions  and 
prejudices  of  the  multitude ;  but  they  were  not  precisely  the 
suggestions  to  whisper  into  the  ear  of  the  authors  of  these 
measures  with  a  view  to  conciliate  and  persuade.  This  remark 
holds  true  whether  we  suppose  the  authors  of  these  measures 
to  have  been  knaves,  or  fanatics,  or  both ;  and  so  it  proved. 

Accordingly  these  letters  had  hardly  been  received,  when 
Mr  Finney,  the  acknowledged  head  of  the  Western  faction, 
preached  at  Utica,  for  the  first  time,  his  celebrated  sermon  on 
the  text,  '  Can  two  walk  together  except  they  be  agreed?' 
which  was  afterwards  preached  at  Troy,  as  the  titlepage  im- 
ports, and  then  published.  This  sermon  is  by  no  means  very 
eloquent  or  very  profound ;  but  neither  is  it,  assuming  the 
principles  avowed  by  all  Revivalists,  the  weak  and  flimsy  per- 
formance his  Orthodox  opponents  would  fain  have  it  thought. 
The  doctrine  advanced  is,  that  our  walking  together,  that  is, 
our  union  and  harmony  as  Christians,  does  not  depend  on  our 
being  agreed  in  opinion  or  theory,  but  on  our  being  agreed  in 
temperament  and  tastes,  and  in  the  tone  of  our  feelings  at  the 
moment. 

'  We  not  only  feel  uninterested  or  displeased  and  disgusted 
when  a  subject  different  from  that  which  at  present  engages  our 
affections  is  introduced  and  crowded  upon  us,  but  if  anything 
even  upon  the  same  subject,  that  is  far  above  or  below  our  tone 
of  feeling,  is  presented,  and  if  our  affections  remain  the  same 
and  refuse  to  be  enlisted  and  brought  to  that  point,  we  must  feel 
uninterested,  and,  perhaps,  grieved  and  offended.  If  the  subject 
be  exhibited  in  a  light  that  is  below  our  present  tone  of  feeling, 
we  cannot  be  interested  until  it  come  up  to  our  feelings;  if  this 
does  not  take  place,  we  necessarily  remain  uninterested ;  and  if 
the  subject,  in  this  cooling,  and  to  us,  degraded  point  of  view, 
is  held  up  before  our  mind,  and  our  affections  struggle  to  main- 
tain their  height,  we  feel  displeased,  because  our  affections  are 
not  fed,  but  opposed.  If  the  subject  be  presented  in  a  manner 
that  strikes  far  above  our  tone  of  feeling,  and  our  affections 
grovel,  and  refuse  to  rise,  it  does  not  fall  in  with  and  feed  our 
affections,  therefore  we  cannot  be  interested ;  it  is  enthusiasm 
to  us,  we  are  displeased  with  the  warmth  in  which  our  affections 
refuse  to  participate,  and  the  farther  it  is  above  our  temperature, 
the  more  we  are  disgusted.'     Sermon,  p.  4. 

This  interpretation  of  the  text  is  so  much  better  than  the 
common  one,  which  supposes  it  to  require  a  uniformity  of  faith, 


1829.]  t)tsscnsiu)is  among  the  Revivalists.  107 

at  least  in  fundamentals,  mat  we  can  almost  forgive  the  wrong 

Mill  done  the  prophet,  who  meant  simply  to  ask  the  question, 
-Can  two  walk  together,  unless  they  agree  beforehand  to  do 
so;1  or,  in  other  words, 'unless  they  meet  by  appointment?9 
Having  satisfied  himself,  however,  mat  the  principal  cause  of 
difference  among  ( Christians  is  alwaj  s  to  be  found  in  the  different 
tone  of  their  feelings  at  the  time,  .Mr  Finney  would  have  it 
inferred  that  the  Eastern  Revivalists  objected  to  the  'new 
measures,'  merely  on  aecount  of  the  eold  and  grovelling  state 
of  their  own  affections.  They  were  offended  and  disgusted 
with  the  '  new  measures,'  because,  to  use  one  of  the  cant  phrases 
in  this  controversy,  they  were  not  '  up  to  them ;'  because  they 
had  not  as  yet  reached  that  degree  of  fervor  and  spirituality 
witli  which  their  Western  brethren  had  been  blessed. 

Mr  Finnej  was  immediately  seconded  in  these  views  by  the 
whole  influence  of  the  Western  Recorder,  a  religious  new  — 
paper  published  at  Utica,  which,  according  to  Honestus,  has 
acquired  the  reputation  of  being  a  'most  intrepid  advocate  of 
fanaticism,  and  a  most  accomplished  champion  of  ribaldry  and 
vulgarity.'  *  All  those  who  wrote  or  spoke  against  the  prevail- 
ing abuses  were  denounced  for  their  coldness  and  opposition, 
and  for  taking  sides  with  the  enemy;  and  Mr  Nettleton,  in 
particular,  was  roundly  charged  with  uttering  and  circulating 
untruths,  and  precipitating  a  public  discussion  which  might  easily 
have  been  prevented  by  a  private  interview  of  the  parties.  An 
open  rupture  having  now  become  inevitable,  the  following 
extract  from  a  letter  of  Dr  Beecher  to  the  gentleman  last 
named,  which  found  its  way  into  the  newspapers  about  this 
time,  indicates  the  course  which  the  writer  conceived  it  advisa- 
ble to  adopt. 

'  There  must  be  immediately  an  extensive  correspondence 
and  concert  formed  ;  ministers  must  come  together  and  consult, 
and  churches  must  be  instructed  and  prepared  to  resist  the 
beginnings  of  evil, — the  mask  must  be  torn  off  from  Satan  com- 
ing among  the  sons  of  God,  and  transforming  himself  into  an 
angel  of  light.  In  the  mean  time,  no  pains  should  he  spared 
to  save  brothers  Finney  and  Beman,  both  on  account  of  the 
great  evil  they  will  not  fail  to  do  on  lawless  converts;  and  the 
great  good  they  may  do,  if  they  are  kept  within  their  orbit. — 
Should  all  these  measures  fail,  then  we  must  publish  your  letter 
to  Aikin,  and  mine  to  Beman  if  it  be  thought  best.     We  shall 

"Revivals  of  Religion,  &c.  p.  18. 


108  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists,  [March. 

need  both  in  New  England  as  manifestos  to  stop  the  mouths  of 
Socinians  and  others  who  would  be  glad  to  blast  revivals  by  the 
evils  arising  from  the  West.' — '  I  would  try  silent  measures 
first,  by  correspondence  and  forming  public  opinion,  and  put- 
ting ministers  and  churches  on  their  guard,  and  publish  only 
when  it  becomes  manifest  there  is  no  hope  of  reformation — 
not  however  delay  publishing  too  long,  because  the  letters  should 
"  precede  the  storm."  '  * 

The  policy  here  recommended  was  sufficiently  refined  and 
subtle,  but  not  sound,  as  the  event  has  shown ;  which  is  almost 
always  the  case  when  ecclesiastics  turn  diplomatists.  The 
people  of  the  West  do  not  appear  to  have  felt  themselves 
much  flattered  by  this  attempt  on  the  part  of  two  or  three 
unauthorised  individuals  to  bring  over  a  whole  community  to 
their  way  of  thinking  and  acting,  by  secret  management ;  by 
writing  private  letters,  despatching  emissaries,  sowing  dissen- 
sions in  churches,  and  tampering  with  the  disaffected.  A  more 
open  policy,  considered  merely  as  policy,  would  unquestionably 
have  been  wiser  and  more  successful,  as  well  as  more  honor- 
able ;  for,  in  the  first  place,  it  was  no  easy  thing  to  overreach 
adepts,  like  Finney  and  Beman,  in  trick  and  manoeuvre  ;  and 
besides,  they  might  have  foreseen  that  their  personal  influence 
and  reputation  in  that  quarter,  and  among  all  parties,  would  be 
seriously  impaired,  and  almost  annihilated,  by  the  detection 
and  exposure  of  such  practices.  Secret  and  underhanded 
management  having  failed  altogether,  as  ought  to  have  been 
expected,  the  next  step  to  be  taken,  according  to  the  plan 
disclosed  in  Dr  Beecher's  letter,  was  to  assemble  several  of 
the  clergy  on  both  sides,  to  consult  on  the  unhappy  differences 
which  had  arisen,  and  agree,  if  possible,  by  mutual  consent  or 
compromise,  on  the  general  principles  by  which  revivals  should 
be  conducted.  Such  was  the  origin  of  the  far  famed  New 
Lebanon  Convention,  of  which  Dr  Beecher  seems  entitled  to 
the  credit  of  having  been  the  first  projector,  though  the  letters 
of  invitation  which  were  sent  out,  were  signed  by  him  and  Mr 
Beman,  as  representatives,  we  suppose,  of  the  two  parties. 
It  is  but  justice  to  Mr  Nettleton  to  say,  that  he  appears  from 
the  beginning  to  have  been  thoroughly  convinced  of  the  impolicy 
of  this  measure,  and  so  expressed  himself  in  a  note  declining 
the  honor  of  a  seat  in  the  assembly ;  though  he  was  afterwards 

*  Christian  Register  for  March  24,  1827. 


1829.]  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  109 

induced,  at  the  earnest  entreaty  of  his  Eastern  friends,  to  wave 
his  objections,  and  attend.     His  objections  however  an 

honesl  and  sensible,  and  have  been  so  completely  verified  b) 
the  event,  that  the  insertion  of  two  or  three  of  them  is  neces- 
sary to  throw  light  OD  this  part  of  the  narrative. 

*  Those  who  convoke  the  convention  are  making  too  much 
noise,  without  any  prospect  of  lessening  the  evils,  and,  conse- 
quently, will  give  the  subject  a  new  importance.  I  should 
great  1\  prefei  a  silent  convention,  on  some  public  occasion  like 
that  of  a  commencement,  where  the  views  of  brethren  who  differ 
may  be  privately  discussed ;  and  in  case  they  should  come  to 
any  important  results,  they  might  be  published  to  the  world  ; 
otherwise  the  public  mind  need  not  be  disturbed.'  Letters  on 
tin   '  New  Measures.'     p.  10:5. 

'I  fear  that  settled  ministers  at  the  East  and  South  have  not 
yet  fr  ft  enough  of  the  evils,  to  appreciate  what  has  already  been 
done;  and  that  these  ministers  will  be  obliged  to  experience 
more  of  these  evils,  before  they  will  take  a  decisive  stand  ;  and 
the  sooner  I  withdraw,  and  leave  the  whole  responsibility  on 
them,  the  better.'     Id.  p.  103. 

1  Finally.  To  prevent  misunderstanding,  I  am  willing  that 
my  friends  should  attend,  and  do  all  in  their  power  to  prevent 
the  evils  feared.  Rut  1  have  no  evidence  that  the  principles  on 
which  these  men  acted  are  in  the  least  altered.  On  the  con- 
trary, 1  shall  be  disappointed  if  they  do  not  attempt  to  vindicate 
them,  and  justify  all  they  have  done.'     Id.  p.  104. 

The  Convention  met  at  New  Lebanon,  in  the  Slate  of  New 
York,  July  IS,  1827,  and  consisted  in  all  of  nineteen  members; 
and  after  a  busy  session  of  eight  days,  in  which  the}"  accom- 
plished nothing,  literally  nothing,  they  voted  to  dissolve,  leaving 
a  direction  that  an  account  of  such  of  their  proceedings 
they  were  willing  to  divulge,  should  he  published  in  the  New 
York  Observer.  This  curious  document  was  inserted  entire  in 
our  number  for  July  and  August,  L 827,  of  the  former  series, 
and  a  few  brief  remarks  were  prefixed,  which  make  it  less 
necessary  for  us  here  to  dwell  on  this  striking  and  highly  char- 
acteristic passage  in  the  history  of  modern  Orthodoxy,  We 
cannot  refrain,  however,  from  giving  an  extract  from  the  Let- 
ters of  an  English  Traveller  *  OD  this  subject;  a  work  which 

*  This  work,  as  flight  have  been  expected,  has  caused  a  Btrong  sensation 
among  the  Revivalists,  and  called  forth  several  criticisms,  and  among  the  real 
a  long  and  foolish  review  in  the  Spirit  of  the  Pilgrims.  There  are  bul  two 
charges   brought    against    these    Letters   which   deserve   notice.      It  is  said 


110  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  [March, 

we  would  again  recommend,  and  it  cannot  be  recommended 
in  any  way  so  effectually,  as  by  giving  a  quotation. 

'  After  all,  you  will  ask,  what  has  the  Convention  accom- 
plished ?  The  answer  is,  Nothing.  Its  members  might  as  well 
have  stayed  at  home.  They  would  have  done  just  as  much, 
and  decided  just  as  much,  by  throwing  missives  from  a  distance, 
as  by  coming  to  close  action.  For  what  have  they  done  ?  They 
have  framed  a  number  of  propositions  so  extremely  general  that 
scarcely  anybody  could  object  to  them,  and  about  which  every- 
body knew  beforehand  that  they  did  not  differ,  and  then  they 
have  brought  forward  a  number  of  other  propositions  to  which 
the  two  parties  alternately  listened  in  a  silence,  which,  if  it 
were  not  politic,  would  fairly  be  construed  as  sullen,  and  which 
may  have  been  both.'     Letters  of  an  English  Traveller,  p.  98. 

'  It  would  seem  in  fact,  as  if  the  Convention  felt  it  dangerous 
at  length  to  go  upon  disputed  ground,  and  the  first  part  of  their 
report  accordingly  dwindles  away  into  some  of  the  most  extra- 
ordinary moral  truisms  that,  I  imagine,  ever  engaged  the  delib- 
erations of  a  grave  assembly.  The  Convention  can  agree  upon 
nothing  but  such  propositions  as  these ; — that, 

'  "  Language  adapted  to  irritate," — is  wrong ;  it  was  high 
time  to  judge  so  ; — that, 

' "  All  irreverent  familiarity  with  God,  such  as  men  use  to- 
wards their  equals  " — is  improper  ; — 

'  That,  "  To  depreciate  the  value  of  education  " — is  not 
well ; — that, 

that  the  writer  shows  himself  to  be  not  only  wrong  in  theory,  hut  an  enemy 
to  seriousness  and  spirituality  in  religion.  Those  who  pretend  this,  if  they 
are  honest  men,  have  never  read  the  book ;  for,  like  the  Unitarian  publica- 
tions generally,  which  this  controversy  has  drawn  out,  it  is  remarkable  for 
not  dropping  a  syllable,  in  the  fearless  exposure  of  the  follies  and  vices  of 
fanatics,  which  can  have  a  tendency  to  bring  religion  itself  into  contempt,  or 
reduce  it  to  a  system  of  cold  and  dry  morality. — The  other  objection  is,  that 
the  author's  manner  is  haughty  and  supercilious.  The  answer  to  this  is, 
that  he  wrote  in  the  character  of  an  Englishman,  and  an  Episcopalian ;  and 
though  the  question  may  be  fairly  raised  whether  it  was  judicious  to  adopt 
such  a  disguise,  having  adopted  it,  it  was  necessary  to  make  his  manner 
correspond.  By  the  way,  the  reviewer  in  the  Spirit  of  the  Pilgrims  promises 
an  article  on  the  New  Lebanon  Convention.  We  hope  he  has  not  forgotten 
his  pledge ;  and  while  he  is  about  it,  we  trust  he  will  enlighten  the  world 
respecting  the  'free  conversations,'  and  the  'sundry  documents,'  which 
occupied  the  attention  of  that  ill  starred  conclave  during  the  last  two  days  of 
the  session.  Let  him  remember,  that  one  of  the  resolutions,  passed  unani- 
mously in  that  assembly,  was  the  following; — 'No  measures  are  to  be 
adopted  in  promoting  revivals  of  religion,  which  those  Tjfho  adopt  them  are 
unwilling  to  have  published,  or  which  are  improper  to  be  published  to  the 
world.5 


1829.]  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  1 1 1 

'  "  To  state  things  which  are  not  true,  for  the  purpose  of 
awakening  sinners,"  is  a  bad  thing.     Again, 

'"The  immediate  success  of  any  measure,  without  regard  to 
its  scriptural  character,"  i.  e.  without  regard  to  its  rectitude, 
"  does  not  justify  it." 

1  "  No  measures  are  to  be  adopted  for  promoting  revivals,  which 
those  who  adopt  them,  are  unwilling  to  have  published." 

1  If  propositions  like  these,  need  to  be  so  solemnly  laid  down, 
what  must  be  the  inference?  What  must  be  the  state  of  things, 
and  what  the  tone  of  morality,  when  a  Convention  of  the  clergy, 
who  have  "compassed  sea  and  land,"  hill-country  and  cham- 
pagne, four  hundred  miles  over,  sit  gravely  down,  and  solemnly 
vote,  that  dark  intrigues,  unconscionable  expedients,  angry 
speeches,  lying,  and  impiety,  are  bad  things,  and  wrong  ? 
What  would  be  thought  of  the  state  of  society,  where  a  com- 
pany of  merchants  should  get  together,  and  pass  formal  resolu- 
tions, declaring  that  fraud,  cheating,  and  falsehood  were  wrong, 
and  ought  not  to  have  countenance?  This  Convention  for 
supporting  and  defending  revivals,  could  not  possibly  have 
framed  a  severer  satire  upon  revivals  than  they  have  done ! ' 

Id.  pp.  101-103. 

Two  resolutions  were  passed  unanimously  at  this  meeting, 
which  indicate,  however,  that  juster  notions  are  beginning  to 
prevail  everywhere  on  this  subject.  On  motion  of  Mr  Ed- 
wards all  voted,  that — 

'  There  may  be  so  much  human  infirmity,  and  indiscretion, 
and  wickedness  of  man,  in  conducting  a  revival  of  religion,  as 
to  render  the  general  evils  which  flow  from  this  infirmity, 
indiscretion,  and  wickedness  of  man,  greater  than  the  local  and 
temporary  advantages  of  the  revival ;  that  is,  this  infirmity, 
indiscretion,  and  wickedness  of  man  may  be  the  means  of  pre- 
venting the  conversion  of  more  souls  than  may  have  been  con- 
verted during  the  revival.' 

This  is  well  ;  but  it  seems  to  concede,  at  least  in  particular 
instances,  all  we  have  ever  asserted  in  regard  to  revivals ;  for 
we  never  pretended  that   they  answer  do  good   purpose,  but 

only  that  the  evils  which  they  occasion  more  than  outweigh 
this  good.  Besides,  it  places  the  consistent  Revivalist  in  a 
dilemma,  from  which  it  will  not  be  easy  for  him  to  extricate 
himself;  for  in  the  case  contemplated  in  this  resolution  bis 
first  endeavour  must  be,  of  course,  to  correct  the  evils  com- 
plained of;  but  (ailing  in  this,  as  happened  in  regard   to  the 


112  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  [March, 

revival  now  under  consideration,  what  is  he  to  do  ?  Either  he 
must  oppose  the  revival,  and  then  he  opposes  what  he  at  the 
same  time  acknowledges  to  be  a  work  of  God ;  or  he  must 
favor  it,  and  then  he  favors  what  he  at  the  same  time  acknow- 
ledges is  likely  to  destroy  more  souls  than  it  saves. 

Another  resolution  moved  by  the  same  gentleman,  and 
passed  unanimously,  augurs  well ;  though  we  copy  it  not  so 
much  for  anything  in  the  proposition  itself,  as  for  the  com- 
ment by  Philalethes. 

'  Mr  Edwards  introduced  the  following  proposition  : 

1  "  The  existence  in  the  churches  of  evangelists,  in  such 
numbers  as  to  constitute  an  influence  in  the  community  sepa- 
rate from  that  of  the  settled  pastors  ;  and  the  introduction,  by 
evangelists,  of  measures,  without  consulting  the  pastors,  or  con- 
trary to  their  judgment  and  wishes,  by  an  excitement  of  popular 
feelings  which  may  seem  to  render  acquiescence  unavoidable, 
is  to  be  carefully  guarded  against,  as  an  evil  which  is  calculated, 
or  at  least  liable,  to  destroy  the  institution  of  a  settled  ministry, 
and  fill  the  churches  with  confusion  and  disorder. 

'  "  The  motion  was  seconded.  And,  after  some  discussion, 
the  Convention  united  in  a  season  of  prayer. 

'  "  After  further  discussion,  the  question  was  taken,  and  all 
voted  in  favor  of  the  proposition,  except  Mr  Churchill,  who  was 
absent." 

'  The  preceding  proposition  gives  us  a  hint  that  the  Presby- 
terian clergy,  at  least  some  of  them,  begin  to  see  what  will 
be  the  result  of  lay  preaching.  Gentlemen,  you  should  have 
thought  of  this  before  now.  The  truth  is,  you  will  find  your 
church  more  and  more  distracted,  till  you  put  a  stop  to  the  custom 
of  allowing  unauthorised  men  and  women  to  lead  your  meetings, 
and  to  attempt  expounding  the  word  of  God.  Your  prayer  meet- 
ing leaders,  whether  male  or  female,  and  your  itinerant  students 
and  evangelists,  are  every  day,  whether  you  and  they  believe  so 
or  not,  unhinging  your  system.  You  cannot  prevent  it,  until 
you  fix  a  distinction  between  ministers  and  laymen.  At  pre- 
sent you  have  no  distinction.  For,  if  they  may  preach,  exhort, 
expound  God's  word,  and  lead  the  devotions  of  the  worship- 
ping assembly,  why  not  administer  the  sacraments  ?  The 
question  does  not  concern  me,  but  you  will  do  well  to  take 
timely  care  of  a  valid  ministry ;  and  when  you  get  it,  allow  of 
no  encroachments,  male  or  female.  This  will  no  doubt,  be  for 
a  time,  unpopular  among  you ;  because  you  have  not  a  few  in 
your  communion,  who  are  not  a  little  proud  of  their  gifts ;  and 
while  a  fondness  for  display,  and  the  emotions  of  spiritual  pride 


1829.]  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  113 

have  places  in  the  human  heart,  those  whom  you  have  employed 
to  help  you,  will  not  readily  retire  to  the  ranks,  become  private 
Christians,  and  hold  their  tongues.  Many  of  them,  would  no 
doubt  leave  you,  in  order  to  be  continued  conspicuous  charac- 
ters in  other  societies.  You  had  better  let  them  !£<>.  Powerful 
as  you  are,  and  popular  as  you  are,  you  are  in  more  danger 
from  these  coadjutors,  these  revival  leaders,  these;  male  and 
female  conductors  of  prayer  meetings,  than  from  all  other  quar- 
ters put  together.  Rest  assured  this  is  the  language  of  sober- 
ness and  truth,  and  of  perfect  good  nature.'  Importance  of  Re- 
rirttts,  pp.  12,  13. 

We  presume  that  the  mention,  or  the  remotest  allusion  to 
this  Convention  will  always  be  as  wormwood  and  gall  to  the 
Eastern  members,  whose  disappointment  at  the  result  was 
heightened  byr  the  consciousness  of  having  been  completely 
baffled  and  outwitted  by  their  opponents  in  a  measure  of  their 
own  proposing.  After  a  stormy  conference  in  which  mutual 
jealousy  and  hate  were  but  thinly  disguised  under  the  awful 
name  of  religion  and  a  disgusting  parade  of  devotional  services, 
the  two  parties  separated  more  committed  than  ever,  and  of 
course  more  obstinate  in  those  very  differences,  which  they 
had  come  together  to  heal.  Then  came  the  finishing  stroke  of 
Dr  Beecher's  policy,  which  consisted  in  giving  to  the  press  his 
own  and  Mr  Nettleton's  letters,  nearly  a  year  after  they  were 
written.  And  what  was  the  consequence  ?  Mr  Finney  and 
his  friends,  who  had  spurned  these  letters  in  manuscript,  now 
spurned  them  in  print ;  with  this  difference  only,  that  the  war 
of  recrimination,  still  more  provoked,  became  louder  and 
more  uncompromising.  We  suspect  that  many  among  the 
Orthodox  have  learned  at  last,  what  we  have  had  occasion  to 
intimate  before  as  one  of  the  worst  features  of  the  revival  sys- 
tem, that  it  gives  an  activity  and  ascendency  to  coarse  and 
vulgar  men,  which  the  judicious  and  better  informed  of  their 
own  party  can  nehher  prevent,  calculate,  nor  control. 

Meanwhile,  everything  which  by  the  most  charitable  con- 
struction could  be  called  religion  in  the  excitement,  was  rapidly 
subsiding.  A  reaction  had  commenced,  and  in  some  places 
the  fever  heats  were  beginning  to  be  succeeded  by  the  fever 
chills.  Yet,  as  usually  happens  in  such  cases,  the  personal 
jealousies  and  antipathies  engaged  in  tin1  controversy,  instead 
of  abating,  were  only  made  more  bitter,  as  an  interest  in  the 
higher  objects  with  which  these  passion-   had   been  originally 

VOL.  VI. N.   S.  VOL.   I.  NO.   I.  IT) 


114  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  [March, 

connected,  and  by  which  they  had  been  in  some  respects 
qualified  and  restrained,  died  away.  The  writings,  published 
and  unpublished,  which  poured  in  from  New  England,  had 
some  effect  undoubtedly  on  the  Western  fanatics,  and  made 
some  converts ;  but  it  was  only  to  carry  into  every  church, 
and  almost  into  every  family  in  the  infected  district,  all  the 
miseries  of  a  domestic  broil.  Considered  merely  in  a  civil 
and  political  point  of  view,  it  was  no  slight  evil,  that  the  peace 
of  neighbourhoods  should  be  disturbed  ;  that  religious  societies 
should  be  rent ;  that  thousands,  through  a  misguided  zeal  for 
God,  should  neglect  their  regular  and  necessary  occupations ; 
that  sectarian  prejudice  and  rancor  should  appear  in  their 
business  and  social  intercourse,  nay,  enter  into  and  corrupt 
their  judgments  of  public  men  and  public  measures.  The 
infidel  and  skeptic  found  in  scenes  like  these  a  new  argument 
for  distrusting  all  pretences  to  piety,  the  thoughtless  and  disso- 
lute new  temptations  to  scoff,  and  the  rational  Christian  a 
literal  and  entire  fulfilment  of  his  saddest  forebodings.  Only 
one  good  and  permanent  result  is  ever  likely  to  grow  out  of 
these  commotions,  a  result  which  is  alluded  to,  though  in 
terms  of  regret  and  alarm,  in  the  following  extract  from  one 
of  the  pamphlets  under  review. 

'  Among  the  defenders  of  these  doctrines  and  measures,  and 
the  advocates  of  revivals,  it  is  common  to  hear  a  most  unmeas- 
ured abuse  of  Socinianism,  Unitarianism,  and  Universalism. 
Far  be  it  from  me,  to  attempt  any  apology  for  these  sects. 
Would  to  God  it  were  in  my  power  to  persuade  them  to  aban- 
don theories  which  I  honestly  believe  to  be  fraught  with  evil ; 
most  gladly  would  I  draw  them  to  embrace  a  scriptural  and 
consistent  system.  While  I  lament  the  course  pursued  by 
these  men,  I  think  it  easy  to  see  upon  what  soil  they  have 
sprung  up  and  most  vigorously  flourished.  What  preceded  the 
preaching  of  Murray  in  Scotland,  but  a  powerful  exhibition  of 
Calvinistic  fanaticism  1  The  same  Universalist  found  a  similar 
field  in  Boston  and  its  vicinity,  and  if  you  will  take  the  trouble 
to  examine,  you  will  find  that  while  Socinians  or  Unitarians 
and  Universalists,  are  always  hovering  upon  each  others'  bor- 
ders, both  find  aliment  in  those  regions  where  the  views  fostered 
by  revivals  have  been  most  prevalent.  It  does  not  require  any 
gift  of  prophecy  to  foretel  that  the  religious  history  of  New  En- 
gland will  hereafter  confirm  the  position  here  taken.'  Revivals 
of  Religion,  p.  28. 


1829.]  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  1  15 

It  is  a  natural  consequence  thai  the  intelligent  and  reflective 
among  the  Orthodox,  on  witnessing  the  practical  evils  to  which 
their  system  has  led,  should  he  disposed  to  reexamine  its  evi- 
dences. Truth  can  never  hope  to  make  progress  unless  a 
spirit  of  free  inquiry  is  awakened,  and  in  places  where  this 
spirit  can  only  be  awakened  by  disorder  and  outrage,  we  may 
lament  indeed  the  occasion,  but  we  must  at  the  same  time 
adore  that  Providence  which  makes  it  the  parent  of  good.  We 
are  aware  that  acting  under  strong  impulses,  a  community  are 
peculiarly  liable,  in  flying  from  one  extreme,  to  be  hurried  into 
another.  In  all  such  cases,  however,  when  men  adopt  crude 
and  loose  opinions  as  a  refuge  from  Calvinism,  we  hope  and 
trust  that  experience,  and  common  sense,  and  the  obvious  sense 
of  scripture,  will  soon  correct  the  errors,  which,  if  they  had 
considered  them  in  all  their  bearings,  they  would  have  rejected 
at  first.  This,  we  must  think,  will  be  the  history  of  the  distin- 
guishing and  obnoxious  principles  of  modern  Universalism. 

Alarmed  at  length  by  the  cry,  that  Orthodoxy  was  in  danger, 
the  authors  of  this  schism  published  the  following  document, 
with  which  we  shall  close  our  historical  notices.  We  give  it 
entire,  and  without  comment,  as  it  needs  none. 

'  The  subscribers  having  had  opportunity  for  free  conversation 
on  certain  subjects  pertaining  to  Revivals  of  Religion,  concern- 
ing which  we  have  differed,  are  of  opinion  that  the  general  in- 
terests of  Religion  would  not  be  promoted  by  any  further  publi- 
cations on  those  subjects,  or  personal  discussions  ;  and  we  do 
hereby  engage  to  cease  from  all  publications,  correspondences, 
conversations  and  conduct,  designed  or  calculated  to  keep  those 
subjects  before  the  public  mind  ;  and  that,  so  far  as  our  influence 
may  avail,  we  will  exert  it  to  induce  our  friends  on  either  side 
to  do  the  same.  (Signed,) 

Lyman  Beecher,  Ebenezer  Chester, 

Derick  C.  Lansing,  John  Frost, 

S.  C.  Aikin,  Nathan  S.  S.  Beman, 

A.  D.  Eddy,  Noah  Cor., 

C.G.Finney,  E.  W.  Gilbert, 

Sylvester  Holmes,  Joel  Parker. 
'Philadelphia,  May  27,  1828.' 

Here  we  might  stop  ;  but  before  quitting  the  subject  we  wish 
to  eo  more  at  length  into  the  merits  of  the  controversy  respect- 
ing the  'new  measures,'  as  they  are  termed.  h\  doing  this  we 
shall  give  frequent  and  copious  extracts  from  the  writers  on 


116  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  [March, 

both  sides,  not  only  because  fairness  and  candor  require  it,  but 
because  the  extracts  themselves  will  be  found  to  be  curious  and 
interesting,  and  to  most  of  our  readers  entirely  new.  They 
will  also  serve  to  authenticate  and  confirm  almost  everything 
we  have  ever  said  against  revivals,  and  being  so  many  reluct- 
ant confessions  wrung  from  friends  to  the  system,  they  cannot 
be  suspected  of  coloring  or  exaggeration. 

In  describing  the  course  pursued  by  Finney  himself,  Mr 
Nettleton  says ; — 

*  The  account  which  his  particular  friends  give  of  his  pro- 
ceedings, is,  in  substance,  as  follows ; — He  has  got  ministers  to 
agree  with  him  only  by  "  crushing,"  or  "  breaking  them  down." 
The  method  by  which  he  does  it,  is  by  creating  a  necessity,  by 
getting  a  few  individuals  in  a  church  to  join  him,  and  then  all 
those  who  will  not  go  all  lengths  with  him  are  denounced  as 
enemies  to  Revivals ;  and  rather  than  have  such  a  bad  name, 
one  and  another  falls  in  to  defend  him ;  and  then  they  proclaim 
what  ministers,  elders,  and  men  of  influence  have  been  "crush- 
ed" or  "broken  down."  This  moral  influence  being  increased, 
others  are  denounced,  in  a  similar  manner,  as  standing  out,  and 
leading  sinners  to  hell.  And  to  get  rid  of  the  noise,  and  save 
himself,  another  will  "  break  down."  And  so  they  wax  hotter 
and  hotter,  until  the  church  is  fairly  split  in  twain.  And  now, 
as  for  those  elders  and  Christians,  who  have  thus  been  converted 
to  these  measures  ;  some  of  them  are  sending  out  private  word 
to  their  christian  friends  abroad,  as  follows; — "I  have  been 
fairly  skinned  by  the  denunciations  of  these  men,  and  have  ceas- 
ed to  oppose  them,  to  get  rid  of  their  noise.  But  I  warn  you 
not  to  introduce  this  spirit  into  your  church  and  society." '  Let- 
ters on  the  'New  Measures?  p.  12. 

1  They  do  cultivate  and  awaken  in  others,  what  very  much 
resembles  the  passion  of  anger,  wrath,  malice,  envy,  and  evil 
speaking.  This  is  the  inevitable  consequence  of  their  style  of 
preaching.  As  Dr  Griffin  observed,  "  It  sounds  like  the  ac- 
credited language  of  profanity,"  or  as  a  pious  woman  of  color  in 
Troy  expressed  it,  "  I  do  wonder  what  has  got  into  all  the  min- 
isters to  swear  so  in  the  pulpit."  '     Id.  p.  13. 

The  same  writer  makes  the  following  judicious  reflections  on 
Mr  Finney's  sermon. 

•  The  sermon  in  question  entirely  overlooks  the  nature  of  true 
religion.  It  says  not  one  word,  by  which  we  can  distinguish 
between  true  and  false  zeal,  true  and  false  religion.  Indeed  it 
does  not  seem  to  hint  that  there  can  be  any  such  thing  as  false 


1829.]  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  117 

zeal  and  false  religion.  If  the  tone  of  feeling  can  only  he  raised 
to  a  certain  pitch,  then  all  is  well.  The  self-righteous,  the 
hypocrite,  and  all  who  are  inflated  with  pride,  will  certainly  ho 
flattered  and  pleased  with  such  an  exhibition  ;  especially  if 
they  be  very  self-righteous  and  very  proud.  False  affections 
often  rise  far  higher  than  those  that  are  genuine  ;  and  this  every 
preacher,  in  seasons  of  revival,  has  had  occasion  to  observe  and 
correct.  And  the  reason  of  their  great  height  is  obvious.  There 
are  no  salutary  checks  of  conscience — no  holy,  humble  exer- 
cises, to  counteract  them  in  their  flight.  And  they  court  ob- 
servation. "  A  Pharisee's  trumpet  shall  be  heard  to  the  town's 
end,  when  simplicity  walks  through  the  town  unseen."  If  the 
preacher  is  not  extremely  careful  to  distinguish  between  true 
and  false  affections,  the  devil  will  certainly  come  in  and  overset 
and  bring  the  work  into  disgrace.  False  zeal  and  overgrown 
spiritual  pride  will  rise  up  and  take  the  management,  and  con- 
demn meekness  and  humility,  and  trample  upon  all  the  christian 
graces,  because  they  are  not  "up  to  it."'     Id.  p.  30. 

'On  reading  the  sermon  in  question,  I  was  reminded  of  the 
repeated  complaints  which  for  some  time  past  I  have  heard  from 
the  most  judicious,  experienced,  and  best  revival  ministers  in 
the  West ;  the  substance  of  which  is  as  follows  ; — "  There  are 
various  errors  in  the  mode  of  conducting  Revivals  in  this  region, 
which  ought  to  be  distinctly  pointed  out.  That  on  the  prayer 
of  faith.  This  talking  to  God  as  a  man  talks  to  his  neighbour, 
is  truly  shocking — telling  the  Lord  a  long  story  about  A.  or  B., 
and  apparently  with  no  other  intent  than  to  produce  a  kind  of 
stage  effect  upon  the  individual  in  question,  or  upon  the  audi- 
ence generally.  This  mouthing  of  words ;  those  deep  and  hol- 
low tones,  all  indicative  that  the  person  is  speaking  into  the  ears 
of  man,  and  not  to  God.  I  say  nothing  of  the  nature  of  the  pe- 
titions often  presented  ;  but  the  awful  irreverence  of  the  manner  ! 
How  strange  that  good  men  should  so  far  forget  themselves,  as 
evidently  to  play  tricks  in  the  presence  of  the  great  God." ' 

Id.  p.  35. 

Another  Orthodox  writer  under  the  signature  'Novanglus,'  in 
reviewing  the  sermon  abovementioned,  reprobates  in  the  strong- 
est terms,  the  irregularities  to  which  die  *  new  measures '  have 
led. 

'If  an  individual  awakes;  that  is,  if  he  adopts  these  new 
measures,  and  gets  full  of  that  kind  of  animal  feeling  which 
they  promote,  he  must  try  to  bring  his  minister  into  the  same 
spirit  ;  and  if  he  cannot  succeed,  he  must  go  about  and  try  to 
raise  a  party  to  "shake  him  off."     I  have  heard  of  such  advice 


118  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  [March, 

being  given  privately  to  individuals,  in  particular  cases,  but  this 
is  the  first  time  I  have  ever  known  it  to  be  publicly  preached 
and  printed,  as  serious  advice  in  all  cases.  And  what  is  the 
rule  by  which  individual  church  members  may  know  when  it  is 
their  duty  to  set  about  this  work,  and  try  to  "shake  off  their 
sleepy  minister?"  No  rule  is  given  in  this  immediate  connex- 
ion ;  but  perhaps  one  is  found  on  the  12th  page  ; — "  If  the  mat- 
ter of  preaching  is  right,  and  the  sinner  is  pleased,  there  is 
something  defective  in  the  manner. "  If  the  unconverted  part  of 
the  congregation  are  generally  satisfied  with  the  minister,  it  is  a 
certain  indication  that  he  is  a  "sleepy  minister,"  and  ought  to 
be  "  shaken  off."  Individuals,  then,  have  only  to  ask  whether 
the  congregation  are  generally  in  peace,  and  satisfied  with  their 
minister ;  and  if  they  are,  it  is  their  duty  to  commence  measures 
to  drive  him  away.'     Id.  pp.  70,  71. 

He  mentions  an  attempt  of  this  kind  against  a  Mr  Williston, 
of  Durham. 

'  The  story  is,  in  substance  as  follows ; — A  young  convert 
from  the  West  made  his  appearance  there,  saying,  that  he 
"  knew  all  about  how  to  conduct  Revivals,"  and  pointing  to  the 
meetinghouse,  told  of  the  "  abominations  that  were  portrayed  on 
those  walls."  He  talked  insolently  to  the  minister,  and  then  to 
the  people  against  him.  And  after  an  evening  lecture  which 
Mr  W.  preached,  he  dropped  on  his  knees,  and  told  the  Lord 
a  long  story  about  Mr  W.,  and  how  he  had  talked  to  him,  and 
what  he  had  said  in  his  sermon  that  was  false,  and  so  tried  to 
convince  the  people  and  the  Lord  that  Mr  W.  was  a  liar,  and 
going  down  to  hell  if  he  did  not  repent.  Upon  Mr  W's  trying 
to  calm  the  people,  by  putting  the  most  charitable  construction 
upon  his  conduct,  that  of  his  not  being  in  his  right  mind,  his 
brother,  who  was  a  member  of  the  church,  arose,  and  told  the 
people  that  Mr  W.  was  "  the  head  Achan  in  the  camp,"  and 
that  "  his  character  was  as  black  as  hell,"  &c,  upon  which 
some  went  and  tried  to  still  them,  while  the  minister  and  others 
retired.  For  his  conduct  that  evening,  this  member  was  labor- 
ed with  by  the  brethren,  and  justified  himself  on  the  principles 
of  this  sermon.  He  said  he  had  nothing  against  Mr  W.,  but  he 
"  did  it  to  have  a  revival."'     Id.  pp.  71,  72. 

No  writer,  however,  inveighs  with  so  much  severity,  or  with 
so  much  power  against  his  Western  brethren,  as  Dr  Beecher, 
of  this  city.  He  is  speaking  of  the  self-sufficiency  and  reck- 
lessness of  consequences,  which  the  'new  measures'  induce. 

'  For  why  should  a  good  man  stop,  who  knows  certainly  that 


1829.]  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  119 

he  is  right  exactly,  .and  that  all  men  are  wrong  in  proportion  as 
they   differ  from  him  ?     This  unquestionably  was  the  Btate  of 

mind  to  which  Davenport  and  his  followers  came.  He  and  they, 
upon  the  subject  of  promoting  Revivals,  were  undoubtedly  the 
subjects  of  a  religious  nervous  insanity.  They  mistook  the 
feeling  of  certainty  and  confidence  produced  by  nervous  ex- 
citement, and  perverted  sensation,  for  absolute  knowledge,  if 
not  for  inspiration  ;  and  drove  the  whirlwind  of  their  insane 
piety  through  the  churches  with  a  fury  which  could  not  be  re- 
sisted, and  with  a  desolating  influence  which  in  many  places 
has  made  its  track  visible  to  the  present  day.  It  was  this 
"  know-certain-feeling, "  which  emboldened  Davenport  to  chas- 
tise aged  and  eminent  ministers,  and  to  pray  for  them,  and  de- 
nounce them  as  unconverted,  and  to  attempt  to  break  them 
down  by  promoting  separations  from  all  who  would  not  conform 
implicitly  to  his  views,  by  setting  on  fire  around  them  the  wood, 
hay,  and  stubble,  which  exist  in  most  communities,  and  may 
easily  be  set  on  fire,  at  any  time,  by  rashness  and  misguided 
zeal ;  and  so  far  as  my  observation  extends,  the  man  who  con- 
fides exclusively  in  himself,  and  is  inaccessible  to  advice  and 
influence  from  without,  has  passed  the  bounds  of  sound  reason, 
and  is  upon  the  confines  of  destruction.'     Id.  pp.  93,  94. 

He  remarks  in  another  place  ; — 

'  No  mode  of  reasoning  is  so  safe  as  matter-of-fact  reasoning, 
if  properly  conducted ;  and  none  perhaps  is  so  liable  to  be  per- 
verted to  purposes  of  sophistry.  The  grounds  of  deception  are 
two  ; — 1.  Drawing  general  conclusions  from  particular  premises ; 
inferring  that  because  some  preacher's  mode  of  address  or  action 
has  been  useful  in  some  circumstances,  it  is  applicable  to  all 
circumstances.  As  if  a  physician,  on  discovering  a  remedy  for 
some  disease,  should  make  it  his  standing  and  universal  pre- 
scription in  all  cases;  as  if  the  shipmaster,  who  had  once  been 
driven  out  to  sea  before  boisterous  winds,  without  anchor,  or 
compass,  or  chart,  or  rudder,  and  who  readied  by  miracle  hifl 
port  in  safety,  should  return  to  denounce  henceforth  these  means 
of  safety,  and  insist  that  nothing  was  needed  to  conduct  auspi- 
ciously the  commerce  of  the  whole  world  but  a  direct  course, 
and  mountain  waves,  and  all  sails  standing,  and  a  hurricane  for 
a  breeze.  2.  Judging  from  limited  views  and  immediate  effects, 
without  regarding  general  and  permanent  results.  The  world, 
both  material  and  intellectual,  is  governed  by  general  laws,  and 
though  the  violation  of  them  may  produce  a  temporary  good,  tin1, 
certain  result,  on  the  great  scale,  will  be  more  than  a  balance  of 
general  evil.     Now  the  importance  of  the  soul  and  of  eternity  is 


120  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  [March, 

such,  as  that  good  men  in  a  revival  are  apt  to  feel  no  matter 
what  is  said  or  done,  provided  sinners  are  awakened  and  saved. 
But  it  ought  to  be  remembered,  that  though  the  immediate  re- 
sult of  some  courses  of  conduct  may  be  the  salvation  of  some 
souls,  the  general  and  more  abiding  result  may  be  the  ruin  of  a 
thousand  souls,  destroyed  by  this  conduct,  to  one  saved  by  it ; 
and  destroyed  by  it  as  instrumentally  in  the  direct  and  proper 
sense  of  the  term,  as  any  are  saved  by  it.  The  sovereignty  of 
God  is  not  to  be  relied  on  in  violation  of  the  great  laws  of  the 
moral  world,  but  in  accordance  with  them.  When  the  thousands 
were  to  be  sealed,  the  four  angels  were  commanded  to  hold  the 
winds,  and  keep  back  the  judgments  which  they  should  after- 
wards execute,  because  war  and  distress  would  impede  his  work 
of  mercy.  Hence  our  Saviour  introduced  the  gospel  dispensa- 
tion gradually,  as  the  mind  of  man  could  bear  it ;  not  putting 
new  wine  into  old  bottles;  and  hence,  too,  Davenport,  disre- 
garding the  general  consequences  of  his  conduct,  and  intent 
only  on  its  immediate  result,  though  he  saved  a  few,  doubtless 
entailed  moral  desolation,  and  darkness,  and  death,  upon  thou- 
sands of  unborn  generations.'     Id.  pp.  94,  95. 

Again  he  says ; — 

1  All  your  periodical  Christians,  who  sleep  from  one  revival  to 
another,  will  be  sure  to  blaze  out  now  ;  while  judicious  ministers 
and  the  more  judicious  part  of  the  church,  will  be  destined  to 
stand,  like  the  bush,  in  the  midst  of  the  flames ;  while  these 
periodical  Christians  will  make  up,  by  present  zeal  for  their  past 
stupidity,  and  chide  as  cold  hearted  formalists,  those,  whose 
even,  luminous  course  sheds  reproof  on  their  past  coldness  and 
stupidity.  The  converts  too  will  catch  the  same  spirit ;  and  go 
forth  to  catechise  aged  Christians ;  and  wonder  why  old  saints 
don't  sing,  and  make  the  heavenly  arches  ring,  as  they  do ;  and 
that  shall  come  to  pass,  which  was  spoken  by  Isaiah  the  prophet, 
as  the  destruction  of  human  society  and  the  consummation  of 
divine  wrath  upon  man,  when  children  shall  be  princes  in  the 
church,  and  babes  shall  rule  over  her,  and  the  child  shall  be- 
have himself  proudly  against  the  ancient,  and  the  base  against 
the  honorable.'     Id.  p.  97. 

We  find  the  best  account  of  the  '  prayer  of  faith,'  and  '  par- 
ticularity in  prayer,'  on  which  so  much  stress  has  been  laid  by 
the  friends  of  the  '  new  measures,'  in  Mr  Brockway's  Delinea- 
tion. 

1  To  pray  the  prayer  of  faith,  was,  to  pray  with  a  full  convic- 
tion  and  a  firm  belief,  that  the  petition  would  be  heard  and 


1829.]  Disseiwons  Qtnong  the  Revivalists.  iji 

answered.  Nay,  more,  it.  was  to  believe  that  it  would  be  an- 
Bwered  without  a  moment's  delay.     All  prayers  that,  come  short 

of  tliis  faith  were  not  only  worthless,  bill  were  mocker)  :  and 
an  insult  offered  to  God.  To  exercise  this  faith  was  the  indis- 
pensable  duty  of  every  Christian  ;  without  it,  he  could  not  pray, 
and  without  it  he  had  no  evidence  of  Ins  acceptance  with  God. 
We  were  told  by  Air  Beman,  in  the  most  positive  manner,  that 
if  we  prayed  for  anything  without  expecting  and  believing  that 
we  should  have  it  immediately,  we  were  guilty  of  a  most  horri- 
ble attempt  to  mock  and  insult  the  Omniscient  God.  There  was 
no  such  thing  recognized  by  God  as  prayer,  but  that  which 
asked,  expected,  and  received  the  thing  sought,  without  a  mo- 
ment's delay.5     Delineation,  pp.  10,  17. 

The  description  he  skives  of  what  they  meant  by  '  particularity 
in  prayer,'  is  so  thoroughly  offensive  and  shocking,  that  we  can 
hardly  bring  ourselves  to  insert  it;  but  the  truth,  perhaps,  had 
better  be  known. 

1 1  will,  for  the  benefit  of  those  unacquainted  with  the  prac- 
tice'— 'give  a  description  of  this  particularity,  as  practised  by 
those  who  had  been  thoroughly  trained  to  this  mode  of  praying. 
The  first  thing  to  be  regarded  as  indispensable,  is  to  introduce 
the  individual  by  name;  and  in  this,  great  care  is  to  be  taken 
that  the  name  be  rightly  called,  as  a  misnomer  has,  it  is  said, 
been  the  occasion  of  disappointment  in  the  looked  for  result. 
The  next  thing  in  order,  is  to  tell  what  God  knows  of  the  indi- 
vidual. If,  perchance,  the  subject  be  a  female,  her  sex  must 
first  be  noticed,  followed  with,  "  O,  Lord !  thou  seest  this  hard- 
ened enemy  of  thine;" — for  it  has  been  considered  wickedness 
to  call  a  sinner  by  a  softer  name  than  God's  enemy — "  Thou 
seest  how  she  has  raised  her  female  hands  against  Thee;  and 
how  she  is  stretching  out  her  puny  female  hands  to  lay  hold  of 
Thee,  and  pull  Thee  from  thy  throne.  See,  Lord,  how  full  her 
hands  art;  of  sharp  arrows  to  fight  Thee.  Thou  seest  how  she 
is  hurling  her  defiance  at  Thee.  Thou  knowest  how  black  her 
heart  is,  and  how  her  enmity  to  Thee  rankles  and  burns  with 
all  the  malice  of  a  demon. "  And,  if  she  be  present,  it  must  be 
added,  "Thou  seest  how  she  has  come  in  here  with  thy  little 
ones,  too  proud  to  kneel  before  Thee  ;  Thou  knowest  that  she 
has  come  in  here  on  purpose  to  mock  Thee,  and  insult  Thee  to 
thy  face."  After  completing  this  description,  which,  by  the 
by,  was  often  drawn  out  far  beyond  what  I  have  here  quoted, 
then  might  follow  the  petition,  or  imprecation — "  Now,  Lord 
God  Almighty!  come  down  upon  this  eneniv  of  thine:  break  in 
upon  her;   break   her  down,  O  Lord,  break  her  down:" — this 

VOL.   VI. N.   S.   VOL.   I.   NO.   I.  16 


122  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  [March, 

could  not  be  too  often  repeated — "  break  in  upon  her.  And  if 
thou  hast  one  thunderbolt  in  store,  heavier  than  another,  come, 
God  Almighty,  and  break  it  over  her  head.  Break  her  down  ; 
crush  her  at  thy  feet ;  slay  her  before  Thee  ! " 

'  This  is  particularity  in  prayer.  But,  in  case  the  subject  or 
subjects,  be  males — for,  from  six  to  twelve  names  were  frequent- 
ly introduced  in  the  same  prayer — then  the  description  and  pe- 
tition must  vary  with  circumstances ;  as  "  O  Lord !  Thou 
knowest  he  is  a  hardened  wretch ;  thou  seest  how  he  has  raised 
his  crest  against  Thee.  Thou  knowest,  Lord,  how  vile  his 
heart  is  ;  and  how  nothing  is  wanting  to  make  him  a  perfect 
devil,  but  for  Thee  to  strip  the  covering  from  his  heart.  Now, 
Lord,  don't  let  him  boast  himself  against  Thee ;  but  draw  thy 
sword  and  come  down  upon  him  ;  drive  it  through  his  heart, 
and  let  him  bleed  at  thy  feet,  that  thine  enemies  may  see  it  and 
be  afraid." 

'  This  is  a  fair,  though  faint  specimen  of  the  kind  of  praying 
which  has  been  so  abundant  in  Troy.  I  say  a  faint  specimen, 
because,  to  render  it  any  ways  complete,  it  should  be  accompa- 
nied with  loud  groans,  and  with  all  that  kind  of  action  which 
denotes  extreme  distress.5     Id.  pp.  22-4. 

These  are  weighty  charges,  but  we  must  not  suppose  that 
the  Western  Revivalists  are  dumb  before  their  accusers.  They 
have  their  vindication,  which,  assuming  the  principles  admitted 
by  both  parties,  is  at  least  plausible ;  and  besides,  they  have 
their  complaints  of  injury  and  wrong,  in  urging  which  they  also 
become  accusers  in  their  turn.  They  contend  that  many  of  the 
the  reports  which  have  been  propagated  against  them  by  their 
Orthodox  opponents,  are  unfounded  and  calumnious  j.  and  very 
likely  this  is  true  to  a  certain  extent.  We  are  particularly 
struck  in  this  connexion  with  their  treatment  of  Mr  Brockway. 
After  having  proved,  as  they  think,  'that  every  material  part  of 
his  printed  statement  relative  to  his  own  testimony'  before  the 
Presbytery  of  Troy,  in  the  trial  of  Mr  Beman,  '  is  without 
foundation,  and  utterly  untrue  ;'  that  *  his  oath  and  his  book  are 
at  war,' — they  go  on  gravely  to  remark,  that  they  have  not  done 
this  '  for  the  purpose  of  casting  reflections,  of  arraigning  mo- 
tives, or  of  impugning  character,'  or  of  affecting  him  in  any 
way,  as  '  a  member  of  the  church  in  good  and  regular  standing.'  * 
Are  we  to  infer  from  this,  that  in  Orthodox  churches  a  mem- 
ber may  be  convicted  of  perjury,  or  deliberate  falsehood,  or 

*  Contrast  of  Josephus  Brockway's  Testimony  and  Statement,   pp.  17,  18. 


1829.]  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalist*.  1 23 

both,  without  losing  or  endangering  his  good  and  regular  stand- 
ing? In  these  churches,  if  a  man  is  seen  once  at  the  theatre, 
or  is  present  at  a  ball,  or  rides  a  few  miles  on  Sunday,  he  is 
immediately  brought  to  bis  confessions,  or  cut  off  as  a  diseased 
member  :  but  are  we  to  understand  that  he  may  be  guilty  of 
perjury  or  deliberate  falsehood,  and  still  retain  his  good  and 
regular  standing?  Will  a  bitter  sarcasm  about  his  'short 
memory,'  intended  merely  as  an  insult,  authorise  them  to  look 
on  a  man  so  convicted,  in  any  other  light  than  as  one  who  has 
forfeited  all  pretensions,  we  do  not  say  to  religion  only,  but  to 
common  honesty?  The  truth  is,  that  the  two  parties  are  at 
issue  here  on  a  very  serious  question,  and  we  leave  them  to 
extricate  themselves  from  the  difficulty  as  they  can. 

Mr  Finney  and  his  friends  contend,  further,  that  much  of 
the  opposition  to  the  '  new  measures,'  has  grown  out  of  a  de- 
sire to  conciliate  the  ungodly.  '  Since  the  session  of  the  Pres- 
bytery, Mr  Beman  told  me  in  private  conversation,'  says  Mr 
Brockway,  '  that  Dr  Beecher  had  set  up  to  oppose  revivals 
for  fear  they  were  getting  to  be  unpopular.'  We  suspect  there 
is  some  foundation  for  this  remark.  For  some  years  back  ;i 
large  portion  of  the  Congregational  and  Presbyterian  clergy  in 
this  country,  have  been  gradually  sliding  into  the  same  methods 
of  gaining  influence,  which  were  first  adopted  by  W  hitefield 
and  Wesley ;  and  the  policy,  for  a  time  at  least,  has  been  at- 
tended with  something  of  the  same  success.  This,  of  course, 
has  gratified  their  lust  of  power ;  but  it  has  been  attended  with 
the  mortifying  circumstance,  that  while  they  were  gaining  the 
same  sort  of  ascendency,  it  was  over  the  same  sort  of  people. 
The  higher  and  better  informed  classes,  though  affected  a  little 
at  first,  soon  began  as  a  body  to  withdraw  and  stand  aloof, 
leaving  the  ministers  in  question  to  find  their  hearers  and  com- 
panions in  the  same  rank  in  society  with  the  early  Methodists. 
It  has  long  been  a  favorite  object  with  I)r  Beecher,  and  some 
others,  to  introduce  such  a  modification  of  the  revival  system, 
as  will  command  the  respect  at  least  of  educated  men,  and 
men  of  the  world  ;  and  undoubtedly  one  of  the  reasons  which 
have  made  him  so  active  against  the  'new  measures,'  has  been 
the  extreme  disgust  they  were  likely  to  excite,  in  persons  of 
this  description,  against  revivals  generally. 

Again,  the  Western  party  complain  that  the  policv  which 
thi^  Orthodox  of  New  England  have  adopted  in  opposing  the 
1  new  measures,'  has  been  throughout  mean,  underhanded,  and 


124  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  [March, 

disingenuous.  This  is  well  expressed  in  a  resolution  which 
Mr  Finney's  friends  had  the  courage  to  bring  forward  in  the 
Convention ;  and  though  understood  at  the  time  to  reflect  se- 
verely on  the  conduct  of  some  of  the  members,  it  was  carried 
by  a  majority  of  one. 

'  The  writing  of  letters  to  individuals  in  the  congregations  of 
acknowledged  ministers,  or  circulating  letters  which  have  been 
written  by  others,  complaining  of  measures  which  may  have 
been  employed  in  revivals  of  religion ;  or  visiting  the  congrega- 
tions of  such  ministers,  and  conferring  with  opposers  without 
conversing  with  the  ministers  of  such  places,  and  speaking 
against  measures  which  have  been  adopted;  or  for  ministers 
residing  in  the  congregations  of  settled  pastors  to  pursue  the 
same  course,  thus  strengthening  the  hands  of  the  wicked,  and 
weakening  the  hands  of  settled  pastors,  are  breaches  of  christian 
charity,  and  ought  to  be  carefully  avoided.' 

In  the  doings  of  a  public  body  the  charge  is  not  connected, 
of  course,  with  the  terms  of  vituperation  and  abuse,  so  lavishly 
bestowed  on  other  occasions.  But  it  is  painful  to  dwell  on  an 
altercation  about  motives,  neither  edifying  nor  respectable, 
especially  when  we  consider  the  office  and  standing  of  the 
persons  implicated,  and  that  both  parties  still  affect  to  call  one 
another  brethren. 

We  hasten  to  Mr  Finney's  sermon,  in  which,  as  we  have 
intimated  before,  he  undertakes  to  account  philosophically  for 
the  opposition  which  has  been  made  to  the  '  new  measures,' 
and  also  for  the  misunderstandings,  divisions,  and  disgusts  to 
which  they  have  given  rise.  According  to  his  theory  these  new 
measures,  as  they  are  called,  are  nothing  more  than  the  com- 
mon revival  system  carried  out  a  little  further ;  that  is,  as  he 
thinks,  more  elevated,  more  purified,  made  more  spiritual.  But 
to  be  able  to  approve  or  sympathize  in  these  measures  it  is 
necessary  that  the  individual's  feelings  and  affections  should  be 
raised  to  the  same  pitch  of  celestial  love  and  harmony  ;  and  the 
true  reason  why  such  men  as  Dr  Beecher  and  Mr  Nettleton 
are  offended  and  disgusted  with  these  measures,  is  to  be  found 
in  the  cold,  sluggish,  and  grovelling  state  of  their  hearts.  We 
prefer,  however,  to  let  Mr  Finney  speak  for  himself. 

'  Again — We  see  why  ministers  and  Christians  visiting  re- 
vivals, often,  at  first,  raise  objections  to  the  means  used,  and 
cavil,  and  sometimes  take  sides  with  the  wicked.  The  fact  is, 
coming,  as  they  often  do,  from  regions  where  there  are  no  reli- 


1820.]  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  I J  "> 

gious  revivals  at  the  time,  they  frequently  feel  reproved  and 
annoyed  by  the  warmth  and  spirit  which  they  witness.  The 
praying,  preaching,  and  conversation  arc  above  their  present 
temperature.  Sometimes,  prejudice  on  account  of  its  being 
amongst  a  different  denomination  from  them,  or  prejudice  against 
the  preacher,  or  people,  or,  perhaps,  pride,  or  jealousy,  or  world- 
liness,  or  something  of  the  kind,  drains  down  their  affections 
that  they  do  not  enter  into  the  spirit  of  the  work.  Now,  while 
their  hearts  remain  wrong,  they  will,  of  course,  cavil;  and  the 
nearer  right  any  thing  is,  the  more  spiritual  and  holy,  so  much 
the  more  it  must  displease  them  while  their  affections  grovel. 

1  Again — We  see  why  ministers  and  private  Christians  differ 
about  'prudential  measures.  The  man,  who  sees  and  feels  the 
infinitely  solemn  things  of  eternity,  will  necessarily  judge  very 
differently  of  what  is  prudent  or  imprudent,  in  the  use  of  means, 
from  one  whose  spiritual  eye  is  almost  closed.  The  man  whose 
heart  is  breaking  for  perishing  sinners,  will,  of  course,  deem  it 
prudent,  and  right,  and  necessary,  to  "use  great  plainness  of 
speech,"  and  to  deal  with  them  in  a  very  earnest  and  affectionate 
manner.  He  would  deem  a  contrary  course  highly  imprudent, 
and  dangerous,  and  criminal.  While  he  who  feels  but  little  for 
them,  and  sees  but  little  of  their  danger,  will  satisfy  himself 
with  using  very  different  means,  or  using  them  in  a  very  different 
manner,  and  will,  of  course,  entertain  very  different  notions  of 
what  is  prudent.  Hence  we  see  the  same  person  having  very 
different  notions  of  prudence,  and  consequently  practising  very 
differently,  at  different  times.  Indeed,  a  man's  notions  of  what 
is  prudent  as  to  means  and  measures  in  revivals  of  religion,  will 
depend,  and,  in  a  great  measure,  ought  to  depend,  on  the  state 
of  his  own  affections,  and  the  state  of  feeling  with  which  he  is 
surrounded.  For  what  would  be  prudent  under  some  circum- 
stances, would  be  highly  imprudent  in  others.  What  would  be 
prudent  in  one  man,  might  be  highly  imprudent  in  another. 
What  would  be  prudent  for  a  man  in  a  certain  state  of  his  affec- 
tions, and  under  certain  circumstances,  would  be  the  height  of 
imprudence,  in  the  same  person,  in  a  different  state  of  feeling, 
and  under  other  circumstances.  It  is,  in  most  cases,  extremely 
difficult  to  form,  and  often  very  wrong  publicly  to  express,  an 
opinion  condemning  a  measure  as  imprudent,  that  is  not  con- 
demned by  the  word  of  God,  without  being  in  a  situation  to 
enter  into  the  feelings  and  circumstances  of  the  individual  and 
people  at  the  time  the  measure  was  adopted.  If  Christians  and 
ministers  would  keep  these  things  in  mind,  a  great  many  un- 
charitabh  and  censorious  speeches  would  be  avoided,  and    miicli 

injury  to  the  cause  of  truth  and  righteousness  would  be  pre- 
vented.'    Smnon.  p.  ?,  8. 


12G  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  [March, 

1  Again — We  learn  why  churches  are  sometimes  convulsed  by 
revivals  of  region.  In  most  churches,  there  are  probably  more 
or  less  hypocrites,  who,  when  revivals  are  in  a  measure  stripped 
of  animal  feeling,  and  become  highly  spiritual,  are  disturbed  by 
the  fire  and  spirit  of  them,  and  inwardly  and  sometimes  openly 
oppose  them.  But  when  a  part  only  of  the  real  Christians  in  a 
church  awake  from  their  slumbers  and  become  very  spiritual 
and  heavenly,  and  the  rest  remain  carnal  and  earthly  in  their 
affections,  the  church  is  in  danger  of  being  torn  in  sunder. 
For  as  those  who  are  awake  become  more  engaged,  more  spirit- 
ual and  active,  the  others,  if  they  will  not  awake,  will  be  jealous 
and  offended,  and  feeling  rebuked  by  the  engagedness  of  others, 
will  cavil,  and  find  themselves  the  more  displeased,  as  those  that 
are  more  spiritual  rise  farther  above  them.  The  nearer  to  a 
right  state  of  feeling  the  engaged  ones  arrive,  the  farther  apart 
they  are ;  and  as  they  ascend  on  the  scale  of  holy  feeling,  if 
others  will  not  ascend  with  them,  the  almost  certain  consequence 
will  be,  that  these  will  descend,  until  they  really  have  no  com- 
munity of  feeling,  and  can  no  longer  walk  together,  because 
they  are  not  agreed.  This  state  of  feeling  in  a  church,  calls 
for  great  searchings  of  heart  in  all  its  members,  and  although 
greatly  to  be  dreaded  and  deeply  to  be  lamented,  when  it  exists, 
is  easily  accounted  for,  upon  these  plain  principles  of  our  nature, 
and  is  what  sometimes  will  happen,  in  spite  of  the  sagacity  of 
men  or  angels  to  prevent  it.'  Id.  p.  9. 

Before  concluding  we  wish  to  offer  a  few  reflections  on  the 
bearing  which  this  controversy  has  on  the  great  question, 
whether  revivals,  in  the  common  acceptation  of  that  term,  ought 
to  be  favored  and  promoted. 

We  have  seen  that  Orthodox  publications,  in  condemning  the 
excesses  and  outrages  committed  at  the  West,  generally  desig- 
nate them  as  the  'new  measures.'  If  by  this  it  is  intended  to 
insinuate  that  similar  excesses  and  outrages  have  never  attended 
a  revival  before,  or  that  they  have  not  usually  attended  great  re- 
vivals, it  is  a  poor  and  mean  artifice,  which  their  own  writings  are 
sufficient  to  expose.  Edwards,  Dr  Beecher,  and  Mr  Nettleton 
admit  that  the  same  or  similar  extravagances  disgraced  the  great 
Munster  revival  in  Germany,  the  great  revival  among  the  En- 
glish Independents  in  the  time  of  Cromwell,  and  the  great 
revival  under  Wesley  and  Whitefield.  The  same  is  equally 
true  of  other  revivals  less  extensive  and  notorious ;  among 
which  we  may  mention  that  in  which  the  sect  of  Quakers  arose, 
that  under  Mrs  Hutchinson  in  the  early  days  of  New  England, 


1829.]  Dittentiom  among  the  Revivalists.  1J? 

that  of  the  Moravians  at  Hernhutt,  and  that  in  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee  in  1803.  Consequently,  whether  the  measures  in 
question  arc  justifiable  or  not,  and  whether  they  properly  belong 
to  the  revival  system  or  not,  it  is  certain  that  they  are  not  new, 
and  to  call  them  so  is  a  palpable  misnomer. 

The  New  England  party  endeavour  to  make  it  appear  that 
the  extravagances  committed  by  their  Western  brethren  afford 
no  ground  of  objection  to  the  revival  system,  but  are  only  to 
be  regarded  as  excrescences,  or  at  most  as  abuses ;  and  some 
ascribe  them  to  the  direct  and  preternatural  agency  of  the  evil 
one.  We  are  aware  that  in  the  creed  of  the  multitude  there 
is  still  a  remnant  of  the  old  Manichean  error,  which  supposes 
a  malignant  being  to  divide  with  a  good  being  the  empire  of  the 
world,  and  that  all  sin  is  to  be  traced  to  the  partial  and  tempo- 
rary triumphs  of  the  former.  Even  on  this  theory,  however, 
if  revivals  present  peculiar  opportunities,  of  which  the  devil 
can  and  will  take  advantage  to  introduce  the  evils  complained 
of,  it  is  just  as  much  an  objection  to  the  whole  system,  as  if 
these  evils  could  be  shown  to  originate  in  the  system  itself,  as 
their  natural,  and  sufficient  cause. 

Still  it  may  be  thought  that  the  revival  system  is  not  properly 
responsible  for  these  excesses  and  outrages,  because  they  are 
not  necessary  to  the  system,  but  only  incidental  and  contingent. 
If  by  incidental  and  contingent  in  this  connexion  is  only  meant, 
that  all  the  extravagances  attending  revivals  do  not,  however, 
attend  them  in  every  instance,  nobody,  we  presume,  will  disptite 
the  position.  If  a  man  enters  an  infected  city,  it  does  not  follow 
necessarily  that  he  will  be  seized  with  the  contagion ;  or  if  he 
associates  with  vicious  companions,  it  does  not  follow  necessarily 
that  he  will  himself  be  corrupted.  For,  in  both  cases,  the 
consequences  of  such  exposure  will  depend,  at  least  in  some 
degree,  on  his  peculiar  temperament  and  circumstances,  and 
other  predisposing  causes.  For  the  same  reason,  it  does  not 
follow  necessarily,  that  the  adoption  of  the  reviva]  system  in  a 
particular  town,  or  village,  will  hurry  every  individual  in  it,  or 
any  individual  in  it,  into  all  the  excesses  and  outrages  to  which 
that  system  has  ever  led.  A  multitude  of  causes  may,  and 
often  do,  exist  to  prevent  this  effect,  or  at  least  to  limit  and 
qualify  it.  Nevertheless  it  is  plain,  that  when  these  excesses 
and  outrages  do  in  fact  follow,  they  follow  as  the  real  conse- 
quences, and  the  natural  consequences  of  the  revival  system. 
Certainly,  then,  it  is  a  valid  objection  to  the  whole  system,  not 


128  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  [March, 

only  if  these  excesses  and  outrages  follow  from  it  necessarily 
and  in  all  cases,  but  if  they  follow  from  it  really  and  naturally, 
when  there  is  nothing  in  the  existing  circumstances  to  oppose, 
limit,  or  qualify  its  manifest  tendencies. 

Again,  some  will  contend  that  the  good  which  Revivals  do 
is  immediate,  while  the  evil  is  remote ;  and  that  the  system  is 
properly  responsible  only  for  its  immediate  results.  But  is 
this  reasoning  satisfactory  ?  The  question  is,  not  whether  the 
bad  consequences  of  a  revival  follow  immediately  or  remotely ; 
but  whether  they  follow  really  and  naturally.  If  it  be  admitted 
lhat  these  evils  do  really  follow  from  a  revival,  it  is  just  as 
much  an  objection  to  the  whole  system,  whether  they  follow 
to-day  or  to-morrow,  or  a  thousand  years  from  this  time.  Be- 
sides, we  are  speaking  of  excesses,  and  of  course  a  man  is  not 
supposed  to  begin  with  excesses,  let  his  system  be  ever  so  bad, 
but  to  be  led  into  them  gradually  as  the  mischievous  tendencies 
of  his  system  are  more  fully  developed.  To  say  that  the  good 
which  Revivals  do  is  immediate,  while  the  evil  is  remote,  is 
only  to  say  that  the  last  stages  of  a  revival  are  always  the  worst ; 
which  is  unquestionably  true.  But  this,  instead  of  obviating  the 
objection  we  are  considering,  presents  it,  as  we  conceive,  in 
the  strongest  possible  light. 

Others  prefer  to  represent  the  obnoxious  measures  as  abuses, 
which  are  not  to  be  charged  on  the  system,  but  on  the  igno- 
rance and  passions  of  bad  men,  by  which  the  system  has  been 
misunderstood  and  perverted.  Now  we  freely  admit  the  im- 
propriety of  alleging  a  few  single  and  occasional  abuses  of  any 
system  as  a  valid  objection  to  the  system  itself;  but  if  we  know 
that  the  system  is  peculiarly  liable  to  abuse,  this  is  a  valid  ob- 
jection. We  must  take  the  world  and  human  nature,  as  we 
find  them  ;  and  if  we  know  beforehand,  or  have  good  reason 
to  expect,  that  the  system  in  question  will  be  abused  in  fact, 
we  cannot  conscientiously  recommend  or  countenance  its  intro- 
duction. In  this  case  we  do  not  reason,  as  some  might  think, 
from  the  abuse  of  a  thing,  but  from  its  peculiar  liability  to  abuse  ; 
knowing,  also,  that  the  same  object,  so  far  as  it  is  a  good  and 
reasonable  one,  may  be  attained  by  other  means  entirely  unex- 
ceptionable. Besides,  is  it  true,  that  the  excesses  and  outrages, 
which  have  usually  attended  great  revivals,  are  to  be  consider- 
ed as  abuses  of  the  revival  system  ?  They  are  abuses  of  reli- 
gion, we  grant ;  but  not  of  this  peculiar  mode  of  propagating  it. 
The  revival  system  proceeds  on  the  dangerous  and  mistaken 


1929.]  Dissensions  among  the  Revivalists.  129 

principle,  that  the  imaginations  and  passions  of  large  bodies  of 
men  are  to  be  excited,  without  taking  care,  at  the  same  time, 
to  enlighten  their  understandings.  It  also  holds  up  the  idea, 
and  this  idea  is  generally  embraced,  that  the  subjects  of  the 
revival  are  moved  by  an  extraordinary  and  preternatural  im- 
pulse of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which,  of  course,  if  real,  should  su- 
persede  and  set  at  nought  the  ordinary  dictates  of  reason  and 
prudence.  Now  we  think  it  undeniable,  that  the  worst  exces- 
ses and  outrages,  which  ever  attended  a  revival,  flow  naturally 
from  such  a  state  of  things;  and  what  can  be  shown  to  flow  natu- 
rallv  from  any  system  can  hardly  be  counted  amongst  its  abuses. 
Driven  from  every  other  position,  the  Revivalist  may  still 
say,  that  even  admitting  the  disorders  which  often  attend  re- 
vivals to  be  fairly  chargeable  on  the  system,  the  system  is  pro- 
ductive of  more  good  than  evil,  and  for  this  reason,  if  for  no 
other,  ought  to  be  favored.  To  this  we  reply,  in  the  first 
place,  that  we  have  no  right  to  do  evil,  or  connive  at  evil,  that 
good  may  come,  in  the  hope  that  the  good  will  preponderate. 
We  are  also  convinced  that  the  evils  directly  induced  by  a  re- 
vival on  the  subjects  of  it,  are  for  the  most  part  greatly  under- 
rated. To  prove  this,  we  had  collected  several  additional 
testimonies,  chiefly  from  Orthodox  writers ;  but  on  turning  to 
them  again,  we  find  they  will  not  bear  insertion  in  a  work  like 
this,  on  account  of  the  extreme  grossness  and  indelicacy  of 
many  of  the  suggestions  and  allusions.  We  are  likewise  to  take 
into  view  the  indirect  influences  of  a  revival  on  those  who  are 
not  the  subjects  of  it,  and  who  are  only  disgusted  by  the  scenes 
commonly  attending  such  excitements,  and  estranged  more  than 
ever  from  God  and  virtue.  We  believe  that  the  follies,  and 
extravagances,  and  fanatical  practices  of  reputed  Christians, 
have  done  more  to  make  infidels  and  scoffers,  than  all  other 
causes  put  together.  Then,  too,  as  we  have  intimated  before, 
there  are  other  ways  in  which  the  same  amount  of  good  max 
be  produced,  without  any  of  the  evils  and  dangers  incurred  in 
revivals.  Let  the  laws  of  the  land  be  better  respected  and 
obeyed;  let  more  attention  be  paid  to  the  subject  of  public  and 
general  education  ;  let  more  liberal  and  honorable  principles 
prevail  in  the  daily  intercourse  of  society,  and  in  the  ordinary 
transactions  of  business;  let  tin*  public  and  fashionable  amus  - 
ments,  which  have  so  much  to  do  in  determining  the  character 
of  a  people,  be  thoroughly  reformed;  let  the  licentiousness  of 
the  press  be  restrained  by  public  opinion,  and  let  the  popular 

V  OL.    VI. \.    s.    VOL.    I.    Nil.    I.  IT 


1 30  School  Booh.  [March, 

literature  of  the  clay,  especially  works  of  poetry  and  fiction, 
breathe  a  purer  spirit ;  in  bestowing  honor  and  applause  let 
more  regard  be  had  to  the  moral  and  religious  character, 
and  in  elections  for  civil  office  let  none  be  raised  to  places  of 
power  and  trust  but  men  of  approved  integrity  and  worth ; 
let  more  consistent  and  practical  views  of  religion  be  diffused 
among  all  classes,  and  let  the  standard  of  preaching  be  elevat- 
ed, and  its  true  and  proper  objects  be  better  understood ; 
finally,  let  educated  men,  rich  men,  and  men  of  standing  and 
influence,  take  a  greater  interest  in  Christianity  themselves, 
and  discover  more  of  its  influence  in  their  conduct,  and  do  more 
for  its  spread.  These  are  the  means  which  God  has  appointed 
for  a  real  and  general  revival  of  religion.  Any  system  or 
policy,  which  pretends  to  supersede  this  process,  or  interferes 
with  it  in  the  smallest  measure,  or  unfits  society  for  it,  or  has  a 
tendency  to  turn  public  attention  to  any  other  quarter  for  help, 
is  to  be  disowned  and  rejected. 


Art.  VII. — 1.  The  Franklin  Primer ■,  or  Lessons  in  Spelling 
and  Reading,  adapted  to  the  Understandings  of  Children  ; 
composed  and  published  by  a  Committee,  appointed  for  the 
Purpose,  by  the  School  Convention  of  Franklin  County. 
Fifth  Ed.  Greenfield.  Phelps  U  Clark.  1828.  18mo.  pp.  48. 

2.  Secondary  Lessons,  or  the  Improved  Reader;  intended  as 
a  Sequel  to  the  Franklin  Primer.  By  a  Friend  of  Youth. 
Second  Edition.  Greenfield.  Phelps  &  Clark.  1828. 
18mo.   pp.  198. 

3.  The  General  Class  Book,  or  Interesting  Lessons,  in  Prose 
and  Verse,  on  a  great  Variety  of  Subjects ;  combined  with 
an  Epitome  of  English  Orthography  and  Pronunciation, 
and  intended  as  the  Third  Book  in  a  Course  of  Reading, 
for  the  Use  of  Schools.  By  the  Author  of  the  Frank- 
lin Primer  and  the  Improved  Reader.  Greenfield, 
Phelps  &  Clark.   1828.   18mo.  pp.  312. 

4.  Essays  on  the  Philosophy  of  Instruction,  or  the  JVurture  of 
Young  Minds.  Greenfield.  Phelps  &  Clark.  1829. 
18mo.    pp.  36. 

These  books  are  the  productions  of  one  and  the  same  author; 
a  gentleman  who  has  paid  great  attention  to  the  subject  of  edu- 
cation, and  particularly  to  that  of  childhood  and  early  youth. 


